


Reboot

by gbearm



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, Fluff, Mass Effect Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 19:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4931902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gbearm/pseuds/gbearm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Writing Prompt from Vorchagirl's Mass Effect Drabble Meme: http://bit.ly/1OfOCLx</p><p>Set post-destroy, some time after the ending. Prompt was: "You'll Never Guess what I saw", In the Mess, Girl Talk. </p><p>Traynor runs into EDI in the mess, to find that EDI is struggling to come to terms with her reinstatement into the Normandy Crew. One-shot fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reboot

For all that the Cision Pro was potent, it took a ridiculous amount of time for an effective brushing. Traynor had gotten into the habit of wandering during this process, sometimes making it as far as the CIC, finishing up some last minute assessments while the toothbrush buzzed away in her mouth. The ship was quiet tonight, especially in comparison to the chaos of vessel mid-war. There was always someone up, running another pot of coffee, rushing from one floor to the next, speaking in hushed, hurried tones. Now, with the threat of the reapers eliminated, the Normandy was a regular showboat. The most exciting mission she went on now was the occasional search and rescue. Shepard seemed to be the only content with this change of pace, though. By now, the rest of the crew was jumping at the bit, ready for some excitement, to which Shepard would respond with some offhand comment. 'Be careful what you wish for' or 'Tell that to my scars'.

Traynor longed for the excitement the war provided, albeit with a tinge of guilt in her stomach. While the Reaper War was horrific and devastating, she had never felt so much purpose in her work, nor pride in her abilities. Processing damage reports and forwarding endless ‘thank you’ letters to Shepard’s private terminal wasn't quite as satisfying as decrypting fake distress signals and tracking down insane sword-weilding Cerberus agents as they jumped from relay to relay. She was deep in this train of though when EDI's all-to-familiar voice brought her back to the present.

“Specialist Traynor.”

Traynor jumped, ever so slightly, hitting the roof of her mouth with the toothbrush. Her mindless wandering had brought her to the mess, apparently, standing barefoot in the kitchen, toothbrush hanging out of the side her mouth, data pad in one hand and a wash cloth draped over the other shoulder. EDI stood by the refrigerator, with her head tilted in an inquisitory look.

"Yes, EDI," Traynor struggled through the foam of toothpaste in her cheeks.

"It is late," EDI commented. "You are the last one up. Even Commander Shepard has gone to bed."

Traynor nodded, gesturing to the data pad, "Work."

"You are analyzing data taken from the Cerberus base of Noveria. That data has been processed and archived." EDI said. "I do not believe that there is any remaining intel to be gathered."

A moment of silence fell between them as Traynor glared at EDI. "I know that," She said, but hardly understood herself. She sighed, walked towards the sink and spat. "I know that," she repeated, "but it doesn't hurt reviewing the report." She tried to think of a reason beyond that to justify herself, but failed, and left the defense at that.

"I did not mean to cause distress," She said, shifting to a wide stance and folding her arms behind her back. "The crew has been acting abnormally since my return." She paused and seemed troubled. Her brows appeared to knit together, for all that the synthetic structure of her skin allowed. "You included."

Traynor stuttered at first, delaying her response. "We're all just adjusting to the new Normandy. No more dangerous, life-threating drops into planets made of literal fire!" She laughed nervously. "We're just not used to maintaining a clean coat of paint. Attending parades and….kissing babies..."

EDI did not seem satisfied with this answer. She looked away, analyzing what Traynor had said. No, that wasn't right. Thinking, thinking about what Traynor had said. It was unfair to reduce EDI to simple V.I. linguistics.

"It has nothing to do with what happened on Earth, EDI." Traynor said, leaning in towards the bar counter. "No one blames you for shutting down after the relays were destroyed. And we got out alright, got back to Earth." She waited, but EDI still seemed troubled. "If anything, we should be parading you around, and making you kiss the babies. You're the only reason we got to the beam in the final push. If you hadn't fixed the tracking system on those missiles, the ground team wouldn't have been able to take out that reaper."

Her tone must not have been very convincing for EDI only nodded, silently, and reassembled herself. Yet, her posture betrayed her thoughts.

Traynor had never considered how EDI was taking all this. The AI was out for weeks, and took several classified Cerberus data bases to restart. The efforts to bring EDI back would never have been made had Shepard not fought so hard for her. The Alliance was uneasy with the idea of restarting an unshackled Cerberus A.I. using old Cerberus tech.There was some concern about her loyalty post-reboot, but most of those concerns were shared in private, away from the higher ups. But, of course, EDI was the Normandy. She must have heard some of the chatter on board.

Traynor bit the inside of her cheek. Consoling troubled A.I.'s was not something she was prepared for. Unsure of what else to say, she decided perhaps gossip was the best way to distract her.

"You'll never guess what I saw," Traynor said, her tone a forced casual. "Back on our last search-and-rescue."

EDI cocked her head, listening but not entirely invested.  

"Well, we had landed at the drop sight, and gotten all of the refuges on board. But Joker was dealing with that landing gear malfunction, and had to open up the cargo bay for repairs. I went down with Adams to see if I could help at all, and while I was working with him, I swore I saw Ashley and James by the gunnery." She placed the data pad, tooth brush, and wash cloth on the counter, relaxing a bit. EDI still seemed tense, but Traynor continued. "She was giggling, EDI, giggling. I don't think I’ve even see Williams laughing, let alone giggling. And Vega was doing that thing with his arms, you know, where he flexes them without actually moving them." Shaking her head, she continued, “If I didn’t know any better, EDI, I’d say they were flirting.”

“Courtship is relative to respective cultures and individual personalities. Although, I would say it is safe to assume that they were indeed flirting.” EDI said.

Traynor stared at EDI for perhaps a little too long.

“Did I say something wrong?”

Traynor narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. She had played the story up a little. Williams had mostly chuckled, and Vega always did the arm flexing thing. “You know something about them, don’t you?”

“No.” A pause. “About who?”

“You do! I know you do! You’re the bloody ship, EDI, you must have seen something!” Traynor bounced a little, repeating, “Tell me, tell me, tell me-you have to tell me!”

EDI glanced to the other side of the mess. She was correct, Traynor was the last one up. A good number of the crew was reassigned after the Normandy returned, so there was hardly anyone to fill the giant ship these days. And the little they had left were all asleep. EDI had no escape. “It would be impolite to…gossip.”

“Oh, come on, EDI, I’m not gonna tell anyone!” Traynor said, mostly lying. “How long have they been like this?”

EDI didn’t answer at first, still eyeing the other side of the room. Then, finally, she answered, “I believe they began showing interest during our shore leave on the Citadel.”

“The Citadel? What, back before we attacked the Cerberus base?” Traynor was nearly off the ground, all her weight balanced on her elbows. “That long? Have they…you know…?”

EDI looked at Traynor  and frowned. “I do not suspect Lieutenant Commander Williams would appreciate me divulging details of her private business.”

Traynor scrunched her nose a bit. “Are you not telling me because Liara called you a blabbermouth?”

EDI thought on this for a moment. “It would be wrong to gossip.”

She groaned and put her head on the table. “Please, EDI, no one can keep a secret on this ship. Well, except for Liara, but that’s sort of her job, isn’t it? Remember, it took the crew no time at all to find out about you and Joker.”

“Joker and I were not operating in secrecy. We were open with the crew about our relationship from the beginning.” Traynor made a face at EDI, to which she was rewarded with a faint smile. EDI seemed to think on this for a few moments. “It is possible that they are not exactly hiding their interest, but rather have not openly discussed it with others.”

“Interest, huh?” Traynor said. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”

“And they were not exactly subtle during the night of the party.”

“What does that mean?” Traynor said, slowly.

EDI tilted her head once more, beginning to resemble an adorable, confused puppy. “Specialist Traynor, you slept no more than 30 feet from them. Did you not hear them?”

“No…” Traynor gasped, realizing what she was hinting at. “Oh, god, did they hook up after I passed out?” EDI didn’t have time to answer. “Oh, that explains so much. Oh…oh, I’m kind of offended they didn’t do it somewhere else, honestly. ” She shook her head a few times, suddenly glad she blacked out most of that night. “It’s…well, I suppose they’re sort of a good match aren’t they?”

EDI smiled, relaxing a bit. “I agree. It has also resulted in James focusing his energy solely on Ashley. He has not pursued any of the female crew in quite some time.”

“Aw, that’s actually kind of sweet, in a weird way.” Traynor smiled. “I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed till now.”

“It would be best if we did not spread word of this to the rest of the crew. It is my understanding that Commander Shepard is the only other one who knows of their involvement with each other. Perhaps we should allow Ashley and James time to develop an attachment. Bringing too much attention to their situation might scare them away.”

Traynor straightened away from the counter. “That’s not a bad idea. Oh, and I was really looking forward to telling Tali about it.”

EDI lowered her chin, giving Traynor a look.

“I won’t say anything, I promise.” Traynor sighed. “Tali’s probably noticed weeks ago and would just make fun of me for not seeing it.”

EDI crossed her arms over her chest. “It is rather remarkable, considering your proximity to them during-“

“Okay, alright!” Traynor threw her hands up in defeat, “That’s enough of that. You make jokes, you’re very funny, I get it!”

EDI stepped out from behind the bar and began making her way towards the lift. Gathering her things, Traynor followed. As they walked, EDI spoke softly, “Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I have been unsure of myself since the reboot, and have doubted my place among the crew. Many have avoided speaking with me, and I believed it was a result of my reboot. I have heard some of the crew talking. Some believe that I am not myself, and that the tech used to reboot my systems might have been corrupted.” At the lift she stopped, looking up towards where Shepard’s cabin was. “I believe I am beginning to understand the difficulty that Commander Shepard faced when she was brought back to life by Cerberus.”

Traynor’s eyes fell to her bare feet. “I know some of them have said some pretty unfair things about you. No one says it out right, but I think they’ve forgotten you are the Normandy. I don’t think they’d say it if they remembered you were listening.”

She took a breath and tilted her head towards EDI. They stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the lift together. “But, they trust you, EDI. They can’t help but be a little…uneasy. They’re not used to this sort of calm. For a long time now, there’s always been something worse waiting for them in the morning, some colony that’s been hit or reports of lost family and friends, or news of some terrible thing that Cerberus had done …I suppose it’s become second nature, to suspect the worst and prepare yourself for the ensuing damage. I’ve been looking over the same mission reports for weeks now, looking for something to worry about. I’m not sure any of us know how to handle life without the reapers.”

She snuck a look at EDI. She was still looking up, but her eyes had sort of glazed over. Traynor placed a comforting hand on her back. A chill ran up Traynor’s spine as her skin touched the cold metal. “EDI, we know you wouldn’t do anything to put us in harm’s way. Not Tali, not Liara, not Garrus, not Shepard. They’ve fought with you, they trust you. It just might take some of the over crew some time to adjust. But, I trust you, EDI.” Her lips tightened into a grin. “How could I not? I’m still worried  I might be in love with that satiny-smooth voice of yours.”

EDI smiled as well, finally turning to look at her. She raised a hand and placed it on Traynor’s shoulder. It lingered there for a moment, then squeezed.  A bit too hard. The gesture came off as foreign to EDI, as if this was the first time she had done it. Traynor smiled through the growing pain in her shoulder.

“Thank you…Samantha. That means a lot to me.” EDI said, releasing her grip. “Perhaps I will record readings of some of your most visited extranet sites - for your listening pleasure.”

Traynor laughed nervously, “Good one, EDI.”

With that, and a sudden dire need to excuse herself, she clapped EDI’s shoulder once more and said, “Well, I suppose I should be off to bed now so I can forget you ever even offered that. What would Joker say if he knew you were flirting with me, EDI?”

“According to his extranet searches, I believe he would be most interested-  
  
  “Nope, no! Don’t need to hear about any of that.” Traynor backed away quickly. “Good night, EDI!”

“Good night, Specialist Traynor.”

She could have been mistaken, but Traynor swore she saw EDI wink just before turning to the lift and entering.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've written in a very long time! But, I gotta admit, this was really fun. I'm hoping to post some more things soon. If you're interested in reading anything in particular, please let me know! Also, I'm really interested in feedback. If there's anything that seemed out of the blue, or didn't feel right for the character, I'd like to hear that too. :D


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